Staple locating and removing device



Sept. 15, 1970 w. K. MUNSON ETA!- 3,528,643

STAPLE LOCATING AND REMOVING DEVICE Filed April 7, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 QQ/M i U ii if ii.

INVENTORS WHITNEY K. Mulvsolu D BY /6\ I w W 42 ATTORNLY Sept. 15, 1970 w. K. MUNSON ETAL 3,528,643

STAPLE LOCATING AND REMOVING DEVICE I Filed April 7, 1969 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,528,643 STAPLE LOCATING AND REMOVING DEVICE Whitney K. Munson, 28 Pinckney Road, Red Bank, NJ:

07701, and John N. Ricci, Red Bank, N.J.; said Ricci assignor to said Munson Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 766,809,

Oct. 11, 1968. This application Apr. 7, 1969, Ser.

Int. Cl. B25c 11/00 US. Cl. 254-28 19 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A staple removing device for mounting on suitable supports, wherein the device incorporates a remover station, in which is normally located the prongs of a remover element, as well as a yieldable stop finger, and backup stop member definitely locating a staple to be removed in alinement with a staple slot at said station. The device further includes staple guide plates for guidance of the staple to be removed into the device at said station and a manual actuator for operating the remover element in the withdrawal of a staple from worksheets to which the staple had been attached.

This application constitutes a continuation-in-part of pending application Ser. No. 766,809, filed Oct. 11, 1968 and now abandoned.

The invention further deals with a device of the character defined, wherein the remover element is supported on a yoke-shaped arm movable toward and from the base of the device, with tensional means retaining the element normally in registered position with said remover station and, still further, wherein said element is actuated by a lever fixed to a shaft supported in said arm and to which said element is fixed.

The improvement embodied in this continuation-inpart application involves addition of a staple ejecting station forwardly of said remover station and a staple collecting station above said remover and ejecting stations, with said collecting station suitably including magnetic means for retaining a quantity of ejected staples.

The nearest approaches to the invention can probably be best found in the following us. patents: 2,762,604, Sept. 11, 1956; 3,126,195, Mar. 24, 1964; 3,345,036, Oct. 3, 1967.

It is quite apparent that the disclosure in this application clearly and patentably distinguishes from the teachings in the foregoing patents. The novel features of the invention will be best understood from the following description, when taken together with the accompanying drawings, in which certain embodiments of the invention are disclosed and, in which, the separate parts are designated by suitable reference characters in each of the views and, in which:

FIG. 1 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view, generally on the line 1-1 of FIG. 2, with parts of the construction broken away, parts shown in elevation and with a part illustrated in dot-dash lines.

FIG. 2 is a plan view looking generally in the direction of the arrows 2-2 of FIG. 1, with parts of the construction broken away and in section.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view on the line 3-3 of FIG. 1, with most of the construction shown in elevation.

FIG. 4 is a section on the broken line 44 of FIG. 1, omitting the worksheets of FIG. 1 and indicating the staple position in dot-dash lines.

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 1 showing a modified construction including staple ejecting and staple collecting stations.

FIG. 6 is a plan view looking generally in the direcv tion of the arrows 66 of FIG. 5; and

FIGS. 7 and 8 are fragmentary views of elements as shown in FIG. 5 indicating respectively the relative positions just prior to, and just after, reaching the staple ejecting station.

Considering FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawing, 10 represents a narrow elongated base of the device adapted to be secured to a suitable support 11 by two screws, as seen at 12, more clearly in FIG. 2. The support can be a block, having a suitably cushioned or friction bottom to retain the complete device on a table or other support against accidental movement in the operation of the device. On the other hand, the support could comprise the top of the rear end portion of a conventional stapler and the narrow structure of the base 10 adapts the device for such mountings.

The upper surface of the forward end portion of the base is bevelled, as seen at 13, FIG. 1, to form part of a throat for free guidance of worksheets 14 into the device in positioning a staple 15 fixed to the worksheets at a remover station, defined primarily by a staple receiving slot -16 arranged transversely of the upper surface of the base, as clearly sceen in FIG. 4. The forward upper edge of the slot is preferably rounded, as seen at 16' FIG. 1, for free dropping of the lower part of the staple into the slot when the rearward movement of the staple is checked by means in the device, later described.

The rear portion of the base has an upwardly extending portion 17 terminating in side pivot pin bearings 18 at the upper end thereof. Note. FIG. 2. Mounted in these bearings is a pivot pin 19, upon which a yoke-shaped arm, generally identified by the reference character 20, is supported for free vertical swinging movement. The sides 21 of the arm are joined at their rear ends in a crosshead 22, the latter including a projecting pintle end 23 freely swingable upon the pin 19. The forward ends of the sides 21 have shaft supports or bearings 24 supporting a shaft 25, one end of which protrudes beyond one of the sides 21 for support of an element actuator 26 fixed to the shaft. Fixed to the shaft 25, as by a setscrew 27, note FIG. 1, is a staple remover element 28, having side remover prongs 29, generally of the contour seen in FIG. 1, the free ends of which are normally positioned at the station 16 or adjacent the rear portion of the slot defining this station, as clearly noted in FIG. 1 of the drawing.

The element 28 is supported in its normal position by a coilspring 30, one end of which is fixed to a rod 31 mounted in the prongs 29, the rod projecting at one end to engage a recessed stop 32, as indicated clearly in FIG. 2 of the drawing, the recess opening through the bottom of the associated end 24 to permit swinging movement of the element in the removal of a staple against the action of the coilspring 30. The other end of the spring 30 is fixed to an apertured plate 33 arranged in a recessed portion 34 of the crosshead 22 and the pintle end 23, as clearly illustrated in FIG. 2, 33 forming a web part of the crosshead.

Mounted on the lower surface of the crosshead 22 of the arm 20, as by screws, one of which is shown at 35 in FIG. 1, is the T-end of a spring, stop and pressure finger 36, the T-end of this finger being best seen at 36' in FIG. 4 of the drawing, in which figure the two screws 35 are shown in section. The forward end of the finger 36 is bevelled, as seen at 37 in FIG. 1 of the drawing, to engage the advancing staple 15 On the worksheets 14 to assist in positioning the stable in the slot 16.

As a further check for positioning of the staple at the remover station, a gravity actuated backup stop member 38 is employed to prevent backward withdrawal of the worksheets after the staple 15 has been definitely positioned at the station 16. The member 38 is freely rotatable on a pin 39 fixed in raised ears 40 of two similar worksheet engaging and staple guiding plates 41 for guiding the staple 15 fixed to the worksheets 14 into the station 16, as best seen in FIG. 3 of the drawing. These plates have raised rear portions fixed to inner surfaces of the arm sides 21, as clearly seen at 42 in FIG. 2 of the drawing.

The forward ends of the plates 41 are rounded, as seen at 43 in FIG. 1, and the lower surfaces of the plates flare upwardly from the station 16 in completing the worksheet admission throat 44, which was partially formed by the bevel 13 on the base 10, as clearly illustrated in FIG. 1 of the drawing.

Considering FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawing, it will appear that the upper and inner surface of the element 28 is recessed, as seen at 45, for freedom of the spring 30 when the element 28 is actuated by depression of the lever 26 in moving the prongs 29 of the element under the crosshead of the staple in withdrawing the staple from the worksheets. In this operation, the lower ends of the staple are free to move downwardly in the slot, which defines the station 16, which will be apparent from a consideration of FIG. 1 of the drawing, taken in conjunction with FIG. 3.

At this time, it will be noted that any type or kind of operating element can be employed on the shaft 25 for actuation of the element 28, the lever 26 being illus trative only of one adaptation of the invention. The lever 26 is normally in the raised position, indicated in dotdash lines in FIG. 1 of the drawing, and is free to move downwardly over the side of the device to the limit extent which is required in the withdrawal of the staple. It will be understood that the upper rounded surface 29 of the prongs serves to quickly and easily lift the staple from the upper surface of the worksheets 14, while said Worksheets are being held down by the plates 41 and the finger 29. The rear end of the stop member 38 is bevelled, as seen at 46 in FIG. 1, to provide this free removal of the staple 15, and the thickness of the stop member 38 is such as to guide the staple in essentially vertical movement until the downwardly flexed ends of the staple 15 have been elevated sufliciently to be free of the worksheets 14, thereby minimizing damage to the worksheets, as the staple is being removed.

In the use of the device and with the parts generally in the position shown in FIG. 1, the staple on worksheets is guided to the station 16 by the plates 41, as will appear from a consideration of FIG. 3, and, in this operation, the plates 41, the member 38 and the finger 36 are raised to the degree governed by the number of sheets secured together by the staple. In this operation, the arm 20 also raises and this feed continues until the staple strikes the end 37 of the finger 36, at which time, the lower ends of the staple will drop into the recess at the station 16, being aided in this operation by the rounded portion 16, bringing the parts into the position, as diagrammatically seen in FIG. 1 of the drawing and also in FIG. 3.

At this particular position, any attempt to withdraw the worksheets or, in order words, to pull backwardly thereon will be checked by the member 38. With the parts in this position, it will be understood that the Worksheets are held upon the upper surface of the base by the plates 41 and the spring finger 36. Further, upon the rotation of the shaft 25 by depression of the lever 26, this downward pressure will be exerted upon the arm 20, thus more securely supporting the worksheets by 41 and 36 and the fingers 29 will be rotated to lift the staple by virtue of the curved surface 29' on the prongs. In this last operation, the lower ends of the staple are free to move downwardly in the slot at the station 16. Upon completion of the removal of the staple and regardless of pressure on the lever 26, the arm will be moved into the normal raised position by the spring 30- and the worksheets removed from the device.

By virtue of the sturcture and operation of the device, staples can be quickly andeasily removed from worksheets with a minimum amount of rupture to the worksheets. A characteristic of the structure as thus far described is that staples are ejected from the device in more or less random fashion and, while this creates no problem in some uses of the device, there are other areas of use in which the random discharge of removed staples can be objectionable.

The modified adaptation of the invention, as illustrated in FIGS. 5 to 8, incorporates structure providing a staple ejecting station forwardly of the staple remover station and a staple collecting station above said remover and ejecting stations to thereby prevent the possibly objectionable scattering of removed staples.

FIGS. 5 and 6 of the drawing correspond generally with FIGS. 1 and 2, with the reference characters having the significance heretofore described, but with the modified or added features and elements being identified as follows.

In the modified structure, the staple remover element 28 has relatively short staple remover prongs 47 extend ing at a substantial angle to the lower curved edge 48 with the upper surface of the prongs continuing through a quarter-round portion 49 to edges 50 disposed substantially tangentially to the hub of the element 28. It Will be apparent that the length of the prongs 37 and the angular ity of the upper surfaces thereof is such that a staple 16 engaged by the prongs in the rotary movement of the element 28 will be lifted clear of the worksheets 14 and of the upper edge of the bevelled surface 46 on the backup stop member 38 before becoming engaged by the curved portion 49 or edges 50 of said prongs.

Upon continued rotation of the element 28, the staple 16 is pushed along the member 38 by the edges 50 to a slight detent 51 in the upper surface of the member 38. Engagement with the detent 51 serves to aline the staple transversely of the member 38 and position it for pick up in the rounded portion 49 of the prongs, as seen in FIG. 7 of the drawing. Slight further rotation of the element 28 carries the staple 16 to engagement with a slightly inclined surface 52 of a protruding lug 53 on the member 38, which can be considered as defining the staple ejecting station.

Continued rotation of the element 28 with the staple 16 clamped between the surface 52 of said lug and the curved portion 49 of the prongs causes the member 38 to swing upwardly about thepin 39 until the free end of the member 38 engages the mounting of the coilspring 30', as indicated in FIG. 8. This upward swinging movement of the member 38 forms a divergent angle between the surface 52 of the lug and the edges 49, 50 of the prongs forcibly ejecting the staple 16 upwardly, as indicated in FIG. 8. This point is reached slightly before rotation of the element 28 is halted ,by engagement of the rod 31 and recessed stop 32, as previously described in connection with FIGS. 1 and 2; and ejection of the staple 16 or the subsequent engagement of the stop 32 completes the cycle of operation of the element 28, which is returned to its original or rest position by the action of the coilspring 30.

In order to receive the ejected staple 16, as shown in FIG. 8, a staple collecting station, generally indicated at 54 in FIGS. 5 and 6 of the drawing, is provided above the staple remover and staple ejecting stations having a relatively large mouth or opening 55 disposed in a substantially horizontal position and having means above such opening for collecting ejected staples.

It will be understood that various types of staple collecting guides and chambers can be associated with the enlarged mouth or opening 55 and, merely for purpose of illustrating one adaptation of a staple collecting means, the device has been shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 as comprising an inverted cup-shaped chamber 56 having essentially semi-circular side walls 57, 57 joined together by a curved outer wall 58. The wall 58, in turn, continues as a flat mounting plate 59 adapted to rest upon upper surfaces of the yoke-shaped arm 20 and secured thereto as by clamping engagements between slots 60 in the end of the plate 59 engaging studs or screws 61 mounted in the arm 20. In order to facilitate quick attachment and detachment of the plate 59, an extension 62 is suitably provided between the slots 60 having a slightly offset end 63 for frictional engagement with a slight detent or recess 64 in the upper surface of the arm 20. I

Inner surfaces of the chamber 56 are lined with layers of magnetic plastic material 65, to which ejected staples 16 readily adhere and accumulate, as seen in FIG. 5. As a characteristic with magnetically attracted iron or steel objects, the magnetic attraction passes from the magnetized surface to superimposed metal articles and it will be apparent that, even with a chamber 56 of the general proportions shown in the drawing, a substantial number of ejected staples can be collected before it is necessary to disengage the plate 59 from the arm 20 in order to remove staples from the chamber 56. It is to be understood, however, that the proportions shown in the chamber 56 are merely illustrative and could be varied or enlarged considerably to accommodate larger quantities of staples.

Various changes and modifications in the staple locating and removing device and the associated staple ejecting and collecting means disclosed herein may occur to those skilled in the art and, to the extent that such changes and modifications are embraced by the appended claims, it is to be understood that they constitute part of the present invention.

Having fully described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A staple locating and removing device comprising a base having a staple removing station, a staple remover element, means movable on said base toward and from said station for rotatably supporting said element with respect to said station, means for guiding the staple on Worksheets to said element at said station in the feed of the worksheets into said device, means registering with said station to engage a staple in checking the feed of the worksheets and to position the staple of said worksheets at said stations, means for rotating said element across the path of said station to engage the staple and impart a lifting movement thereto, a back stop member preventing forward movement of the staple until lifted clear of said worksheets by said element, and means to then return said element to normal position.

2. A device as defined in claim 1, wherein said station is defined by a slot in the upper surface of said base in which part of the staple to be removed is positioned.

3. A device as defined in claim 1, wherein said first named means comprises a pivoted yoke-shaped arm, on which said element is rotated by said fourth named means.

4. A device as defined in claim 3, wherein said fifth named means comprises a coilspring, one end of which is coupled with said arm and the other end of which is coupled with said element, and means checking support of said element in normal position.

5. A device as defined in claim 3, wherein said second named means comprises a pair of plates supported on and movable with said arm and having pressure engagement with the worksheets at said station.

6. A device as defined in claim 3, wherein said third named means comprises a spring finger supported on said arm and having pressure engagement with the worksheets adjacent said station.

7. A device as defined in claim 5, wherein said back stop member is pivotally supported in connection with said plates forwardly of said station at a point above the plane of said worksheets, and said member having an end portion in pressure engagement with the worksheets and adapted to engage a staple positioned at said station.

#8. A device as defined in claim 1, wherein said element employs a pair of curved prongs, a spring mounted on the first named means and coupled with said element,

means checking movement of. the spring to normally support ends of said prongs in registering position with said station, said third named means comprising a spring finger arranged between said prongs, and said station being defined by a staple positioning slot.

9. A device as defined in claim 8, wherein said first named means comprises a pivoted yoke-shaped arm, on which said element is mounted, and said second named means comprising a pair of plates supported on and movable with said arm and having pressure engagement with the worksheets at said station.

10. A device as defined in claim 9, wherein said back stop member is pivotally supported in connection with said plates, said member having an end portion in pressure engagement with the worksheets and adapted to engage a staple positioned at said station, and said fourth named means comprising a lever fixed to a shaft, to which said element is secured.

11. A device as defined in claim 1 having cooperating means on said element and back stop member providing a staple ejecting station forwardly of said staple remover station adapted to provide forcible upward ejection of a removed staple.

12. A device as defined in claim 1 having cooperating means on said element and back stop member providing a staple ejecting station forwardly of said staple remover station adapted to provide forcible upward ejection of a removed staple, and a staple collecting station having an enlarged opening disposed essentially horizontally above said staple remover and staple ejecting stations.

13. A device as defined in claim 1, where said cooperating means comprises leading edges on said element disposed essentially tangentially to a hub portion thereof and disposed substantially perpendicularly to the staple lifting portions of said element, and a protruding lug on the upper surface of said back stop member disposed in the path of movement of a staple as advanced by said element.

14. A device as defined in claim 13, wherein juxtaposed surfaces of said lug and leading edges of said element provide an upwardly convergent angle as a staple is engaged therebetween, whereby further movement of said element causes upward pivotal movement of said back stop member, said upward pivotal movement converting the angle between said surfaces to an upwardly divergent angle to thereby forcibly eject the engaged staple.

15. A device as defined in claim 12, wherein said staple collection station comprises an enclosed chamber extending upwardly from said enlarged opening and having means for magnetically retaining a plurality of removed staples therein. a

16. A device as defined in claim 15, wherein said chamber is carried by a mounting plate detachably coupled with the movable means on said base which supports the staple remover element.

17. A device for locating and removing staples from worksheets and collecting the staples thus removed, said device comprising a base having transverse groove means locating a stample remover station, means in spaced relation to said groove means pivotally supporting a staple removing and collecting assemblage, said assemblage having plate members disposed perpendicularly to the groove means of said base and spaced to loosely engage ends of a staple in guiding stapled worksheets to said groove means, staple remover components of said assemblage comprising a rotatable element having spacd prongs for engaging a staple adjacent the ends thereof and a back stop member pivoted to said plates having a movable end providing a bearing surface for engaging a staple between and opposed to said prongs, the size of said bearing surface and prongs being such as to impart substantially vertical movement to a staple until separated from said worksheets, guiding edges on said element disposed substantially perpendicularly to said prongs for carrying a removed staple to a staple ejecting station defined by said guiding edgs and a lug protruding from said back stop member, juxtaposed surfaces of said lug and guiding edges as initially engaging a staple therebetween providing an upwardly convergent angle whereby further rotation of said element transmits a force through the staple and stud to pivotally elevate said back stop member, elevation of said back stop member converting said upwardly convergent angle to an upwardly divergent angle to thereby forcibly eject the engaged staple, and a staple collecting station disposed above said staple remover and ejecting stations accommodating a quantity of ejected staples and having an enlarged essentially horizontal opening through which ejected staples can freely pass.

18. A device as defined in claim 17, wherein said staple collecting station comprises an enclosed chamber having means for magnetically retaining a plurality of staples therein.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,762,604 9/1956 Misson 254-48 3,126,195 3/1964 Taylor 254-2'8 3,345,036 10/1967 Cooke 25428 ROBERT C. RIORDON, Primary Examiner D. R. MELTON, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 227-63 

